Agenda - Government Property 2024 | Public Sector Conference

Agenda – plenary and work sessions

Thursday 8th February 2024

0930 – 1100 Plenary session

Chair – Ravi Chand CBE, Director, Office of Government Property, Cabinet Office

Lynda Rawsthorne, Government Head of Property Profession, Cabinet Office

Capability; Skills; Transforming the profession

Mark Chivers, Government Chief Property Officer, Cabinet Office

The Government Property Strategy; Size, shape, efficiency of the public estate; the estate in 2030

Andy Mills, Sector Director for Central Government, Equans

Delivering Government’s Vision Values and Goals through Sustainable Facilities Management

The plenary session will end with Q&A, giving attendees the chance to ask questions and promote discussion on the issues which are of most importance to them.

1100 – 1130 Refreshments and networking

1130 – 1200 Session 1

Let’s put the future behind us! Understanding the new paradigm for managing the built environment

Are the scenarios that underpin our property strategies still valid? What does the economic, social, political, and cultural data tell us about the world we’re moving into? And what kind of buildings does that data suggest we’ll need in future? In this session, Karl Limbert examines a wide range of data and builds a case for a new paradigm for guiding our strategic property planning.

Karl Limbert, Director of Strategy, Equans

1210 – 1240 Session 2A

Strategic asset management
Against the backdrop of the Government Property Strategy 2022 -2030, there is a continued focus on delivery of a smaller, better and greener estate, whilst managing sometimes competing priorities of policy, driving net zero and constrained budgets amongst others. Having a well-defined Strategic Asset Management plan that leverages the full value of existing and future estate can help mitigate these impacts. Our panel will include expert viewpoints from Hannah Davis, AtkinsRéalis Director of Strategic Asset Management and Dominic Brankin, Director of Workplace Services at the GPA, who will discuss how GPA are managing a portfolio that has now onboarded 45% of the government estate, covering almost 950,00m2 of varied assets.

Facilitator: Stephanie Walters, Regional Director and Central Government Sector Lead for AtkinsRéalis PPS
Dominic Brankin, Workplace Services Director for the Government Property Agency (GPA)
Hannah Davis, Director and Head of Strategic Asset Management, AtkinsRéalis
James Conlin: Technical Director of Asset Management, Atkins Realis and Chair of the Faculty for the Institute of Asset Management

1210 – 1240 Session 2B

Nurturing your money tree
Spiralling costs, a climate crisis, and an uncertain political landscape, further impact on an ageing public estate in need of renewal. Wouldn’t it be great if these assets could become money trees to help address the challenges?

Following our 2023 session on establishing your money tree, we turn our attention to growing it. We’ll explore how to nurture what you have and how to generate value using data-driven decision making. We will highlight live solutions that can optimise your estates and assets, support your sustainability ambitions and bring benefits to your citizens.

Facilitator: Tom Lee, Project Manager and Future Professionals representative, Rider Levett Bucknall
Panel:
Marie Leaphard, Partner and Public Sector Lead, Rider Levett Bucknall
Michelle Zompi, Head of RLB Digital, Rider Levett Bucknall
Nathan Monks, Partner and Estate Optimisation Lead, Rider Levett Bucknall

1240 – 1340 Lunch and networking

1340 – 1410 Session 3A

Transforming the Public Estate – Exploring the Challenges and Solutions
In a climate of reduced funding, how do we find efficiencies but still address the need to regenerate communities, digitise, achieve net zero, travel sustainably and deliver a circular economy? By realising total value and maximising benefits to the community, public sector organisations can achieve resilience, and find safe, regenerative solutions through the effective management of their assets and resources.

During the session, our panel of experts will explore:

Risk management and mitigation
Establishing goals and a delivery roadmap
Reviewing governance and resources
Efficient procurement to ensure value for money on projects
Programme management and delivery

Moderator: Tom Allen, Head of Consultancy, SCAPE
Chris Clarke, Director of Performance and Improvement, SCAPE
Lesha Chetty, Business Unit Director – Local Government and Communities, Mace
Gavin Mason, Director, Perfect Circle

1340 – 1410 Session 3B

Building nuance into business frameworks: How private sector decarbonisation capabilities need to look to support the Net Zero transition of the public estate
With the public estate being responsible for approximately 10% of the UK’s carbon emissions, management of these buildings will be critical in supporting the UK reach net zero by 2050. Although a large-scale overhaul is needed to achieve 2050 targets, often a nuanced approach needs to be considered to account for differences in regions, portfolios, and end user-needs.

As an incumbent supplier of maintenance service across the education, justice and defence sectors, and an expert in managing aging public estates, we are well positioned to discuss the challenges surrounding the topic of carbon and energy transition.

Professor David Healey will be leaning on his advisor expertise from both public and private sector role to bring the conversation to life, and to challenge industry to enhance and innovate their carbon capabilities.

Mark Baptiste – Associate Director for Strategy, Amey.
Dr David Healey – Professor in Practice at Keele University and Managing Director of Smart Grid Solutions

1420 – 1450 Session 4

Unlocking funding for all: a guide to Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
Nazar Soofi, former Head of Decarbonisation and Planning Maintenance at Leeds City Council, has joined Eddisons to offer his valuable experience and skills to more UK public sector organisations. By volume, Nazar has one of the most successful track records in securing and delivering Salix PSDS funding with his work at LCC.

In this session, Nazar will show how PSDS can be successfully delivered by breaking down the responsibilities of the clients, consultants, and contractors, underpinned by working together to achieve a shared goal of decarbonisation within the one-year funding deadline.

He will also highlight the challenges of the application process and the critical path activities, such as DNO, planning consent and onsite limitations. Attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of the PSDS process, from application to final commissioning, alongside a knowledge of the pitfalls and opportunities you will face.

Nazar Soofi, Head of Sustainability and Decarbonisation, Eddisons

1450 – 1520 Refreshments and networking

1520 – 1550 Session 5A

Embedding social value across large and diverse portfolios
From aging heritage buildings to new-build office hubs in a single portfolio, is it possible to embed social value at an organisation level to realise true efficiencies and community benefits at a local level?

Jason McEwen, Portfolio & Programme Management Director, Capital Projects, Government Property Agency (GPA)

1520 – 1550 Session 5B

The role of public-private partnerships in regeneration
In this session, Rick Lawrence, partnerships director at LCR, will explore the role and importance of successful partnerships in development and regeneration projects. He’ll draw on his own experiences of working alongside the Government, local authorities and other stakeholders to deliver new placemaking and mixed-use regeneration opportunities across the country.

LCR works in partnership with local authorities to create public spaces that reflect the needs of the community. Rick will draw on examples such as the Mayfield Partnership in Manchester – led by a partnership between LCR, Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and Land Securities – and the Derby Station Gateway – being delivered by LCR, Derby City Council, East Midlands Development Company and Network Rail – to discuss the power of collaboration to deliver public value in large-scale regeneration projects.

Rick Lawrence, Partnerships Director, LCR

1555 – 16:40 Panel Debate and Q&A

A panel of senior property professionals from central government and the wider public and private sectors will discuss the hot topics of the day, then take questions from the delegate audience

Chair, Ravi Chand, Director, Office of Government Property, Cabinet Office

Sue Brown, Managing Director, Real Estate Balance

Jonathan Easthope, Head of Professional Development, Office of Government Property, Cabinet Office

Amos Simbo, Managing Director, BPIC Network

Please note agenda, session times and speakers are subject to change